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Enhancing Food Safety: The Role of the Food and Drug Administration (2010)

Recent outbreaks of illnesses traced to contaminated sprouts and lettuce illuminate the weaknesses in the system for preventing foodborne diseases. Although food safety is the responsibility of everyone, from producers to consumers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has an essential role and currently oversees monitoring and intervention for 80 percent of the food supply. The FDA's ability to discover potential threats to food safety and prevent outbreaks of foodborne illness are hampered by the inefficient use of its limited resources and a piecemeal approach to gathering and using information on risks. Enhancing Food Safety, a report from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, responds to a congressional request for recommendations on how to close gaps in FDA's food safety systems.

Enhancing Food Safety begins with a brief review of the Food Protection Plan (FPP), FDA's food safety philosophy developed in 2007. The report deems it ineffectual and stresses the need for more detail and specific strategic planning. The report also explores the development and implementation of a more effective food safety system and recommends adopting a risk-based decision-making approach to food safety; creating a data surveillance and research infrastructure; integrating federal, state, and local government food safety programs; and enhancing efficiency of inspections.

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Smallpox cannot be found naturally in the wild. Smallpox was officially declared eradicated from the globe in 1980, after an 11-year WHO vaccination campaign—the first human disease to be eliminated as a naturally spread contagion. Today, the virus remains only in laboratory stockpiles.

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Smallpox cannot be found naturally in the wild. Smallpox was officially declared eradicated from the globe in 1980, after an 11-year WHO vaccination campaign—the first human disease to be eliminated as a naturally spread contagion. Today, the virus remains only in laboratory stockpiles.

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Smallpox cannot be found naturally in the wild. Smallpox was officially declared eradicated from the globe in 1980, after an 11-year WHO vaccination campaign—the first human disease to be eliminated as a naturally spread contagion. Today, the virus remains only in laboratory stockpiles.